DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.803#0110
104 THE BRITISH MUSEUM.
name because he made wooden statues called Daedala,
having had a different name at his birth*."
Endoius, an Athenian by birth, was the disciple of
* Boeot, c. in. The name of Daedalus among the antients
must have been synonymous with universal genius ; for this same
person is stated not only to have made the labyrinth of Crete, and
to have been the greatest sculptor of his time, but to have been
also the inventor of the wedge, and of wings, with which last he
fled from Crete to avoid the revenge of Minos. These last, how-
ever, are believed, by some critics, to have been only the sails of
the vessel which bore him away from the island, the use of which
for ships is said to have been unknown previous to his flight. Dav
dalus, by possibility, might have been a name given to a train of
artists. M. Quatremere de Quincy is of this opinion in his
( Jupiter Olympien,' p. 170, " Le nom de Dedale," he subse-
quently says, (i aura ete par la suite applique ii tons ces ouvrages
anonymes, enfantes durant cette nuit des temps, dont aucune tra-
dition historique ne pouvait me* me jadis dissiper les tenebres.
L'ancien Dedale aurajoue, dans I'opiuion des Grecs, un role tout'
a-fait semblable a celui que 1'opinion religieuse des modernes fit
jouer pendant long-temps a Saint-Luc, auquel on altribuait I
plus vieux ouvrages de peintnre, et tous ces tableaux noirs i
noircis par le temps, qui ne portaient et n'avaient conserve nj
date ni nom. Saint-Luc eutaussi de pretendus eleves: ce q«'
signifie qu'avant 1'ecole de Cimabue" et de Giotto, au treiziema
siecle, il y avait eu des peintres si ignorants, que ieurs nonis
n'avaient pu s'attacher a leurs tableaux." Ibid. p. 174J
Lord Aberdeen, in his Inquiry into the Principles of Beauty in
Grecian Architecture, considers that the epithet Daedalian iffl*
plied nothing more than skilful. Goguet, Orig. des Loix, torn."'
p. 11, has refuted some of the antient accounts of this artist.
It is worthy of notice, that Homer, who could not have spoken
of works of art in the terms which he has used, without having
seen them, ascribes to Hephaestus, usually considered as Vulcan,
the honour of making Achilles's shield; and Odyss. viL 91, he
speaks of the gold and silver dogs of Alcinous as made by the
same hand. It would seem as if Hephaestus was a generic term
for some very early artist, whose real history was forgotten. K
also tends to connect early Grecian art with Egyptian. D&dalu3
also, according to Diodorus, worked in Egypt. See Diodorus, I*
97, 98.
Hepheestus was, in fact, the general representative of early
workers in metal, and Daedalus of those in wood.
name because he made wooden statues called Daedala,
having had a different name at his birth*."
Endoius, an Athenian by birth, was the disciple of
* Boeot, c. in. The name of Daedalus among the antients
must have been synonymous with universal genius ; for this same
person is stated not only to have made the labyrinth of Crete, and
to have been the greatest sculptor of his time, but to have been
also the inventor of the wedge, and of wings, with which last he
fled from Crete to avoid the revenge of Minos. These last, how-
ever, are believed, by some critics, to have been only the sails of
the vessel which bore him away from the island, the use of which
for ships is said to have been unknown previous to his flight. Dav
dalus, by possibility, might have been a name given to a train of
artists. M. Quatremere de Quincy is of this opinion in his
( Jupiter Olympien,' p. 170, " Le nom de Dedale," he subse-
quently says, (i aura ete par la suite applique ii tons ces ouvrages
anonymes, enfantes durant cette nuit des temps, dont aucune tra-
dition historique ne pouvait me* me jadis dissiper les tenebres.
L'ancien Dedale aurajoue, dans I'opiuion des Grecs, un role tout'
a-fait semblable a celui que 1'opinion religieuse des modernes fit
jouer pendant long-temps a Saint-Luc, auquel on altribuait I
plus vieux ouvrages de peintnre, et tous ces tableaux noirs i
noircis par le temps, qui ne portaient et n'avaient conserve nj
date ni nom. Saint-Luc eutaussi de pretendus eleves: ce q«'
signifie qu'avant 1'ecole de Cimabue" et de Giotto, au treiziema
siecle, il y avait eu des peintres si ignorants, que ieurs nonis
n'avaient pu s'attacher a leurs tableaux." Ibid. p. 174J
Lord Aberdeen, in his Inquiry into the Principles of Beauty in
Grecian Architecture, considers that the epithet Daedalian iffl*
plied nothing more than skilful. Goguet, Orig. des Loix, torn."'
p. 11, has refuted some of the antient accounts of this artist.
It is worthy of notice, that Homer, who could not have spoken
of works of art in the terms which he has used, without having
seen them, ascribes to Hephaestus, usually considered as Vulcan,
the honour of making Achilles's shield; and Odyss. viL 91, he
speaks of the gold and silver dogs of Alcinous as made by the
same hand. It would seem as if Hephaestus was a generic term
for some very early artist, whose real history was forgotten. K
also tends to connect early Grecian art with Egyptian. D&dalu3
also, according to Diodorus, worked in Egypt. See Diodorus, I*
97, 98.
Hepheestus was, in fact, the general representative of early
workers in metal, and Daedalus of those in wood.